EU Orders Google To Roll Back New Privacy Policy; Is U.S. Next?

As Google seeks to untangle European antitrust allegations, the search giant has run afoul of EU regulators yet again, this time for its revamped privacy policy.

A French data protection body will order Google to roll back its most recent privacy policy, which essentially consolidated policies from different Google services into one umbrella policy. Google claimed that the changes helped smooth user experience, but critics say they simply allowed Google to micro-target users better and optimize advertising revenue. EU regulators question the legality of Google’s changes specifically because they did not include an “opt out” option for users.

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An American lawyer and privacy advocate speculated to the Guardian that the European ruling could have a “domino effect,” leading other countries to make similar demands on Google.